“This is the first time we’ve sent a spacecraft to a small celestial body, and it’s actually a multi-satellite system, with one main spacecraft and two CubeSats operating in close proximity,” Michel said. said. “This has never been done.”
Artist’s illustration of the Hera spacecraft carrying two deployable CubeSats, Juventus and Milani, near the Didymos binary asteroid system. The CubeSats communicate with the ground team via a radio link with the Hera mothership.
Credit: ESA Science Office
One source of uncertainty, and perhaps concern, about the environment surrounding Didymos and Dimorphos is the condition of the debris field observed by Hubble several months after the DART impact. But Kueppers says this is unlikely to be a problem.
“I’m not too worried about the possibility of rocks on Didymos,” he said, recalling that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft was able to navigate around active comets with relative ease from 2014 to 2016. spoke.
Ignacio Tanco, ESA’s Hera flight director, does not share Küpper’s optimism.
“We didn’t hit the comet with a hammer,” said Tanko, who is responsible for ensuring the safety of the Hera spacecraft. “For me, the debris issue is really…I wouldn’t say it’s a cause for concern, but it’s certainly a precaution. Once we get there, it’s an issue that needs to be approached carefully.”
“That’s the difference between an engineer and a scientist,” Küpper joked.
Scientists originally hoped that Hera would be near the Didymos binary asteroid system before DART arrived, so they could directly observe the impact and its radioactive fallout. However, ESA member states did not approve funding for the Hera program by the deadline, and the space agency only signed a contract to build the Hera spacecraft in 2020.
ESA first studied missions like DART and Hera more than 20 years ago, when scientists proposed a mission called Don Quixote to obtain deflections of asteroids. However, other missions took priority in the European space program. Hera is currently writing the final chapter of the story of humanity’s first planetary defense test.
ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher said: “This is ESA’s contribution to humanity to protect our planet in the future.”
